


it's an old song, it's a tragedy

by the9muses



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Angst, But Also!, Daisy is Orpheus and Jemma is Eurydice, F/F, Inspired by Orpheus and Eurydice (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Music, SO MUCH ANGST AND I'M SORRY, angst with a vaguely hopeful ending!, greek mythology inspired
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:15:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29922954
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the9muses/pseuds/the9muses
Summary: Jemma is dead, and Daisy tried to get her back.(she failed, and now she must pay the price)based on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice
Relationships: Jemma Simmons/Skye | Daisy Johnson
Comments: 7
Kudos: 13





	it's an old song, it's a tragedy

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this in one sitting and i'm sorry it got so angsty but i was listening to hadestown and couldn't help myself.
> 
> part of the aos march madness ( ~~coffee shop AU~~ vs Mythology AU)

It is easy to get lost in the dark. 

It is easy to lose yourself in that absence of light, when there is no sunlight to show you the way, no glisten of hope on the horizon. 

It is easy to forget why you are in the dark in the first place. 

And when you emerge, you are not the same.

Some come out of the dark changed for the better. An understanding of who they truly are fills them, and they _understand_. The world makes sense. Simply put, they are whole.

Others emerge with a bitter taste on their tongue, a heart full of secrets and lies and broken promises. 

Daisy emerges alone. 

Once upon a time, there was a girl behind her, a girl she would go to hell and back for. (and she did, but that was never destined to end well, and so here she is) 

But she was impatient. She was reckless and hurt and desperate and lonely, so, so, lonely, and she did exactly what she was told not to do, and now she’s paying the price for what she did, the price she knew about, in the back of her mind, but was too blind to see. 

Now she is alone. 

Now the shadow of death follows her, a pitch-black shadow, sucking the light from wherever it goes. Now the music that once fell from her lips, soft and sweet and lovely as honey, is guttural and broken and heartbreaking, and all who hear it feel the loss that she must face. 

Because all of it is her fault. Jemma was her everything, and now she is nothing. Now Hades has her in his grasp, his icy cold grip that Daisy barely managed to escape herself. 

Jemma was sunlight and song and happiness and Daisy looked at her and music bubbled forth and spilled over. Now it barely makes it past her lips before it falls to the ground in pieces, and trying to pick up those pieces rips the skin of her hands and leaves her bleeding, holding a tune in some semblance of formation and beauty but she can see the cracks weaving through it. She can always see the cracks. It was always her who could see the cracks threatening the world, always her who could see everything tearing the world to pieces and still see beauty, but now she realizes that it was Jemma who was the beauty that she could see. Her world was tinted by love and now she can see what it truly is and it is ugly and awful and terrible. 

And so her music slowly sputters, spiraling downwards. Every time she tries it tears at her heart, each shard piercing her where it hurts the most, dragging down every person who hears it.

Jemma is gone.

Gone forever.

Daisy will never get her back, never hold her again, never kiss her and never laugh with her and never see her ever ever ever again. 

_And it is her fault._

* * *

She still remembers every moment that left her here.

She remembers finding Jemma asleep, deep, deep, asleep, and knowing with terrifying certainty that _this wasn’t just sleep,_ that this could be the end of it all, holding her for hours until clarity struck her. 

Remembers being fueled by desperation so great that she wandered down, down, down, her lyre the only sound for miles and miles and miles, the darkness tearing her breath from her mouth and leaving her shivering, cold, alone, and so, so, so scared. 

Remembers standing in front of the god of death, just a girl, so small faced with the end of everything, completely, irrevocably in love with a dead girl, and _begging_. _Begging_ for Jemma back, begging for the rest of her life, begging to be able to live in the world she used to love and the world she used to have. 

Remembers her final act of desperation, pulling out her lyre and beginning to play, pouring every ounce of sadness in her body, every ounce of exhaustion and devastation and anger and longing into the song. (by the end of it both Hades and his wife were close to tears. She didn’t notice, too blinded by her own) 

She remembers being given a chance. Getting to see Jemma again, briefly, promising her that they’ll see each other on the other side, before setting out into the darkness yet again.

She remembers doubt, suffocating her, snuffing out her voice and her breath and leaving her to put one foot in front of the other, step after step after step after step after step, praying for the faintest noise from behind but getting nothing. Not the clattering of rock, not Jemma’s breathing, not footsteps. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. 

She remembers the war, near the end, to keep looking forward and not turn back, but the doubt was too much, it was all too much, who was she to convince Hades of anything, who was she. 

Who was she? 

(she is, and always has been, Daisy. But she could not see that in the dark)

Most of all, she remembers the look on Jemma’s face when she turned around. Shattered hope and disappointment and resignation and _love._ Love for the woman who sentenced her to hell and Jemma was always too forgiving, because that was in her gaze, too, forgiveness. 

Maybe Jemma could forgive her, but Daisy will never forgive herself. How can she? She was given a chance, a chance that so many long for, and she threw it away. She failed. 

She failed. 

And she can never, ever, forgive herself for that. 

* * *

Before, her music brought smiles to people’s faces, made them dance, and now it makes them cry. 

It’s good, she decides. It may be cruel to wish pain on others, but she has broken and her sharp edges are perfect to wield that cruelty. Now, she is almost feared. People don’t want to face the reality of the world, and she forces them to, forces their eyes open far enough until the awfulness of it crashes down on them. 

She doesn’t sleep anymore. Nightmares kept her up the first time she tried. 

She doesn’t eat. She sees no point. 

She does nothing but wander the world, a shadow of herself, and plays the instrument that is her saving grace and her downfall. She lets the music pry apart the cracks in the world until they are gaping chasms. 

She does not die. 

Suspended between life and death, she plays and plays and plays, takes step after step after step after step, mourns her dead lover. 

Not once does she turn around to see what might be behind her. 

Slowly, she dissolves into herself, into the rivers and roads she travels along, into the fields and trees and lakes and cities she passes. She dissolves into nothing and everything, her music echoing faintly near waterfalls and streams, flowers and sunlight.

Slowly, she fades away. 

(her lover has waited patiently down below, and soon they’ll be together again)

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! comments and kudos are always appreciated <33


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